Titanic exhibition a rare treasure

Want to get a personal glimpse into one of the most notorious maritime disasters ?

Then take a trip down U.S. 31 to visit “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” Sept. 25 through January at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.

More than 5,400 artifacts have been recovered, following seven expeditions to the site of the Titanic’s final resting place, according to Cheryl Mure, vice president of education for Premier Exhibitions Inc.

RMS Titanic Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc., is the only company permitted to recover objects from the wreckage.

The company was granted possession rights to the luxury liner, which is scattered in pieces some 12,000 feet beneath the sea, by a United States federal court in 1994.

The exhibition seeks to transport visitors back to the time of the voyage with room re-creations, says Mure.

“There’s even an iceberg to touch and feel just how cold the water was on that night. Over 240 artifacts really tell the story. They hold hundreds of memories of the passengers, crew and the ship. That’s what makes it so remarkable,” Mure explains.

Mure went on to say that the artifacts are exhibited in the very condition they were found in.

“We don’t restore, we conserve them to prevent any further decay or deterioration,” she explains.

Personal items like a gold wristwatch or a man’s bowler hat give visitors a sense of the various travelers, rich or poor.

“Who did they belong to? What was he like? Where was he going? These are real objects. This ship started out with such hope and expectation, especially for over 700 immigrants,” says Mure.

Upon entering the exhibition, visitors will be given a replica of an actual boarding pass with the real name of a passenger who boarded the Titanic. After completing the tour, visitors will go to the Memorial Gallery to learn if the passengers named on their boarding passes survived or perished when the Titanic sank, according to Mure.